The Other California

I really wanted to pass this along. It is much longer than necessary. This piece is a great read. Truth is that even with laws and rights a dozen the humiliation of discrimination that many folks with disabilities, including myself face every day is palpable. Breaking down that divide will take more than money and enforcement of the law- it will take a major shift in social consciousness about what it means to be human- what it means to be an American citizen. Each of us is broken in some way, many of us just can't hide it as well.


The Other California
By Marty Omoto

"That the poor are invisible is one of the most important things about them. They are not simply neglected and forgotten as in the old rhetoric of reform;
what is much worse, they are not seen." - Michael Harrington (1962)

years ago, Michael Harrington wrote "The Other America" a book that lifted the heavy veil that made invisible to the rest of the country, the poorest Americans,
millions trapped in poverty - outside of public policy, outside of political power and outside of the American dream. Among those millions were hundreds
of thousands of people with disabilities - infants, children and adults, seniors and their families. Harrington wrote about the poor in the Appalachians,
the shocking hunger of children in the Mississippi Delta, the thousands who toiled the fields as migrant farmworkers in unimaginable conditions, and
the isolation of poverty in the inner cities, while discrimination prevailed against people of color, and agains

The book was read by President John F Kennedy and then Attorney General Robert Kennedy and profoundly influenced them - and millions of other Americans
since then. The ideas of many critical programs - Medicaid, Medicare, expanded social security benefits, food stamps and more can be traced back to his
explosive study on poverty, which, with the civil rights movement, galvanized the nation in the early 1960's into declaring "unconditional war on poverty".

Much progress for sure has been made since the book was published in 1962. Major civil rights and voting rights acts, creation of Medicare and Medicaid,
the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Rehabilitation Act, California's Lanterman Developmental
Disabilities Services Act, Unruh Civil Rights Act, the Mental Health Services Act and more were enacted - the work of both Republicans and Democrats.
And yet, now almost a half century later the heavy veil that separates the people who have opportunities from the people who do not, remains, sometimes
lifting ever so briefly when indifference is overcome by accountability. There is still in this country, the "Other America", and, in this state, the "Other
California".

Hard Choices Not Made For Others
In the "Other California", in bad budget times for people with disabilities, seniors, for low income families, it seems that rights are rationed, and in
good budget times, somehow minimized among other worthy priorities. In the "Other California" the State fails to fully enforce the rights that it has
an obligation to fulfill, whether it is the right to special education, the right to public accommodations or the right to live independently in the community.

We recognize there limits to funding and resources, limits that people with disabilities and community organizations and workers contend with on a daily
basis for decades.
We could understand and respect the reasons of those who make decisions about limited funding and resources impacting people with disabilities and seniors
if policymakers in fact would recognize those limits for other groups in other budget areas. But they don't.
We have no quarrel with those other groups who push hard for higher wages or increased benefits or increased funding for pensions, or other funding. It
is their right to do so. But there is a profound disconnect to reality and fairness when the Legislature and Governor approve those requests for increased
spending for other groups and other budget areas, and then tell the community of people with disabilities and seniors that there are only hard choices
to be made.
If those in the "Other California" were told that the State is broke and has no money, and if then told that the Legislature and Governor did reject salary
increases for themselves, for the correctional system, for pensions, and expanding funding in other areas outside the health and human services budget
then at least fairness and honestry would be a part of the debate of what hard choices need to be made.

Read The rest at the CDCAN Web site